
Glass U \'^ ^ 
Book #0 7 8 



1^ 



ORIGIN OF THE NAMES 



OF THE 



STATES OF THE UNION. 



BY 



HAMILTON B. STAPLES. 






u 






\ 



\ 



w> 






ORIGIN OF THE NAMES OF THE STATES. 



ORIGIN OF THE NAMES 



STATES or THE UNION. 



HAMILTON B. STAPLES. 



A Paper read at the Regular Meeting of the American 

Antiquarian Society, October 21st, 1881, and 

published in its Proceedings. 



PRESS OF CHAS. HAMILTON 
311 Main Street. 

1882. 



Y 



•S^g" 



OEIGIN OF THE NAMES OF THE STATES OF THE 

UNION. 



I HAVE the honor to lay before the Society a series of 
notes, the result of a limited research, upon the origin of 
the names of the States of the Union. I was led to suppose 
the subject might prove interesting from the circumstance 
that, some time ago, it had attracted the attention of the 
Society as a fit subject of investigation, but for some reason 
no definite inquiry has been })rosecuted. I regret that in 
respect to the origin of the names of several States, my 
paper will simply present an array of conflicting authorities. 
I have to acknowledge my indebtedness to the acting- 
librarian of the Society, and to Mr. Green, the accomplished 
librarian of the Free Public Library of Worcester, for the 
means to prosecute these inquiries. 

In considering the subject, it will be convenient to divide 
the States into groups, starting with the original thirteen 
States, as the first group, and in respect to this group, to 
refer to the States in the order of the coast line from North 
to South. 

The origin of the name of New Hampshire is very simple. 
The original territory conveyed by patent of the Plymouth 
Company to John Mason in- 1G29, was named by him after 
Hampshire County in England. 



Origin of the Names of the 

The life of Massachusetts, as an autonomic State, l)egins 
with the charter of 1()91, which merged into one province 
the Plymouth and the INIassachusetts Bay jurisdictions and 
also the Province of Maine. The present name of the State 
is derived from the Bay of that name. In fjict, the word 
"Bay" was a part of the name of the younger colony which 
alone had received a charter from the Crown, and was 
retained in the name of the new province, and afterwards in 
the name of the State, till the Constitution of 1780 went 
into operation. The Massachusetts Bay received its name 
from the Massachusetts Indians who peopled its shores at 
the time of John Smith's visit in 1G14. The word Massa- 
chusetts is an Anglicized plural of Massachusett, meaning 
" at or near the great hills," " at or near the great hill 
country," from massa " great," wadchu (in composition) 
adchu — plural wadchuash "mountains" or "hills," and 
the suffix et " at or near." This analysis of the name is 
that given by Dr. Truml)ull in his learned 'treatise on 
Indian names. 

The origin of the name of Rhode Island is quite obscure. 
A writer in the Providence Journal, over twenty years ago, 
in regard to the Aquetneck Island afterwards Rhode Island, 
from which the State derived its name, says — 

" How and for what reason it received the name Rhode 
Island is a disputed and obscure question. Some ancient 
authors write the name Island of Rhodes. * * * Some 
have believed that the name was to be derived from the 
Dutch Roode Eylandt, which signiiies Red Island, and which 
the first Dutch explorers of the Bay sometimes gave to the 
Island. * * * Others have written the name Rod 
Island. Perhaps it could also be Road Island (the Island of 

6 



Sfafes of the Union. 

the Roadstead or harbor isltmd ) , because the real and au- 
thentic origin and beginning of the name appears to he so 
uncertain. I also find that in the early history of the State, 
persons of the family name Rhodes are also mentioned. 
Could not one Mr. Rhodes have been among the first Eng- 
lish settlers?" Mr. Schoolcraft in his history of the In- 
dian Tribes, adopts the Dutch origin of the name. Mr. 
Arnold in a note to his valuable History of Rhode Island 
says, " The derivation of this name has given rise to much 
discussion ; by vrhat strange fancy this Island was ever sup- 
posed to resemble that of Rhodes on the coast of Asia 
Minor, is difficult to imagine, and it is equally strange that 
the tradition that it was named from such reseml)lance 
should be transmitted or be believed unless indeed because 
it is easier to adopt a geographical absurdity than to investi- 
gate an historical point." Mr. Arnold then goes on to say 
that the celebrated Dutch navigator, Adrian Block, who 
gave his name to Block Island, sailed into Narragansett Bay 
" where he commemorated the fiery aspect of the j^lace, 
caused by the red clay in some portion of its shores, by 
giving it the name of Roode Ejdandt, the Red Island, and 
by easy transposition, Rhode Island." In support of the 
theory that the State ivas named after the island in the 
Mediterranean Sea, we have the authority of Peterson's His- 
tory of Rhode Island. We have also the connnanding 
authority of the public act by which the name was given. 
From Vol. I., p. 127, of the Rhode Island Colonial Records 
we make this extract : "At the Generall Court of Election 
held at Nuport 13. Jan. 1644. It is ordered by this Court 
that the ysland commonly called Aquethneck shall be from 
henceforth called the Isle of Rhodes or Rhode Island." The 



Origin of the JS^ames of the 

form of this vote introducing the Isle of Rhodes first is 
opposed to all the theories of the origin of the name except 
that which refers it to the island in the Mediterranean. It 
is stated by IVIr. Hildreth that the name as given to the 
island by the purchasers was the Isle of Rhodes and that it 
was afterwards called Rhode Island, When we consider 
that Sir Henry Vane was instrumental in the purchase of 
the island from the Indians, we are at no loss to account for 
a name which displays an historical imagination. 

The name Connecticut spelled Quin-neh-tukqut signifies 
" land on a long tidal river." The name is so sj^elled in 
Cotton's Vocabulary, and in the Cambridge Records it 
appears as Quinetuckquet. This explanation rests upon the 
authority of Dr. Trumljull. 

The territory of the imperial State of New York was 
comprised in the royal grant to the Duke of York in 1664, 
of all the land ' ' from the west side of the Connecticut river 
to the east side of the Delaware Bay." In 1664, the Duke 
fitted out an expedition which took possession of New 
Amsterdam, and the place was thereafter called New 
York, in honor of the Duke. The same name was applied 
to the State. By a strange caprice of history the greatest 
State in the Union bears the name of the last and the most 
tyrannical of the Stuarts. 

The State of New Jersey, granted by the Duke of York 
to Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley in 1664, 
received its name in the orant in commemoration of 
the brave defence of the Isle of Jersey by Carteret, its 
Governor, against the Parliamentary forces in the great 
Civil War. 



States of the Union. 

Pennsj^lvania owes its name to its founder, William 
Penn. The name given by Penn himself was Sj^lvania, 
but King Charles II. insisted that the name of Penn should 
be prefixed. It is the only State in the Union named after 
its founder. 

The counties of Newcastle, Kent and Sussex " upon 
Delaware," granted by the Duke of York to Penn in 1682, 
were known as the territories of Pennsylvania. In 1701, 
Penn granted them a certain autonomy. The State was 
named after the bay of that name, and the bay after Lord 
De-la-war who explored it. It has been claimed that the 
bay and the river were named after the Delaware Indians, 
who in 1(500 dwelt upon their shores. This claim is un- 
founded. The Delaware name for the river was Lenapeh- 
ittuk, meaning Lenape river. 

Maryland was settled under a charter granted in 1G32 
by King Charles I. to Lord Baltimore. The State was 
named after Queen Henrietta Maria. In the charter the 
country is called '•'■Terra Marice, Anglice, Maryland." 

The first step in the colonization of America by England 
was the charter granted in 1584 by Queen Elizabeth to 
Sir Walter Raleigh. Under this charter Raleigh took 
possession of the country west of the Roanoke, and called 
it Virginia in honor of the Virgin Queen. This is the only 
State in the Union whose name appears in literature, 
associated with the royal title. Spenser dedicated the Fiierie 
Queene to " Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, Queene of 
England, France and Ireland and of Virginia." The near- 
est approach to this in a puldic act is the order of the Eng- 
lish Privy Council to the Virginia Colony after the Revolu- 



Origin of the Naines of the 

tion of 1G88 to proclaim William and Mary as " Lord and 
Lady of Virginia." 

The name of West Virginia, a new State formed within 
the jurisdiction of Virginia, needs no separate considera- 
tion. 

North Carolina and South Carolina may he considered 
under one head. Allen in his History of Kentucky 
ascribes the origin of the name Carolina to the French 
settlers of Port Royal, who named it after Charles the 
Ninth of France. This is the popular impression, but 
there is reason to question its accuracy. In the charter of 
Carolina granted to the Lords Proprietors by Charles 11. 
in 1663, the name of Carolina is recognized. More than 
thirty years before Charles I. had granted a tract of terri- 
tory south of the Chesapeake to Sir Robert Heath, nam- 
ino- it Carolana after himself. This orant became forfeited 
by non-user. The name, however, so given to-the territory 
was doubtless revived in the new charter of 1663. It would 
not be a pleasant reflection that two States of the Union 
derived their name from the king who commanded the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew. 

The name of Georgia, after King George II., was by 
the terms of the charter conferred upon the territory grant- 
ed to the company organized by Oglethorpe in 1732. 

We now come to a group of States which at the time of 
the Revolution were outlying districts, belonging to certain 
States. These districts were Maine, belonging to Massa- 
chusetts ; Vermont, claimed both by New York and by New 
Hampshire ; Kentucky, belonging to Virginia, and Ten- 

10 



States of the Union. 

nessee, belonging to North Carolina. The origin of the 
names of these States will now be considered. 

Maine owes its name to its being supposed to be the 
main or chief portion of the New England territory. The 
origin of the name is disclosed in an extract from the grant 
of Charles I. to Sir Fernando Gorges, in 1639, contirm- 
atory of a patent given by the Plymouth Company in 1622, 
wdiich grant the grandson of Gorges, through John Usher, 
assigned to the Massachusetts Bay Colony " all that Parte, 
Purparte and Porcon of the Mayne Lande of New England 
aforesaid, beginning att the entrance of Pascatway Harbor" 
(then follows the description), "all which said Part, Pur- 
part or Porcon of the Mayne Lande and all and every the 
premises hereinbefore named wee doe for us, our heires and 
successors create and incorporate into one Province or 
Countie. And we doe name, ordeyne, and appoynt that 
the Porcon of the Mayne Lande and Premises aforesaide 
shall forever hereafter bee called and named The Province 
or Countie of Mayne." 

•The territory of Vermont was so named from the French 
words verd mont, "Green Mountain," the "d" being 
dropped in composition. The legal history of the name is a 
curious one. At a convention of the people held at West- 
minster January 15, 1777, it was declared that the district 
was a State " to be forever hereafter called, known and dis- 
tinguished by the name of New Connecticut ahas Vermont." 
The convention met by adjournment July 2d, 17/7, and 
having, in the meantime, ascertained that the name of New 
Connecticut had been already applied to a district on the 

banks of the Susquehanna it was declared that instead of 

11 



Origin of the JVames of the 

Xew Connecticut, the State should " ever be known hy the 
name of Vermont." Hall in his "Early History of Ver- 
mont," appendix No. .9, claims that the words "alias Ver- 
mont" did not belong in the name as adopted in January 
and that they must have been inconsiderately added to the 
journal, or an early copy of it, by way of explanation after 
the name Vermont had been adopted in lieu of New Con- 
necticut and afterwards in transcribing, erroneously taken as 
a part of the original." Mr. Hall gives various reasons in 
support of this claim. One is the improbability, not to say 
the absurdity, that the convention should have given two 
names to the State. But is there not a strong presumjition 
in favor of the correctness of public records, and against the 
mutilation of the journal? Another reason adduced by Mr. 
Hall, is, that in the remainder of the journal the new State 
is twice called New Connecticut alone. This reason seems 
to possess very little force. Another reason given is that 
Ira Allen, a member of the January convention, in his 
history inserts wdiat purports to be the first named declara- 
tion with the name of New Connecticut only. This might 
well be in a history written after the name Vermont was re- 
solved on and giving only the substance of the first name. 
In opposition to Mr. Hall's theory the words are found in 
Slade's State Papers, page 70, in Williams' History of 
Vermont, and in a manuscript copy of the journal of the 
convention, the original being lost, in the possession of 
James H. Phelps. Further, all accounts concur that the 
name of Vermont was given to the State by Dr. Thomas 
Young, and we find a letter of his dated 11 April, 1777, 
addressed to " the inhabitants of Vermont, a free and inde- 
pendent State," which implies that at that date the State 

12 



States of the Union. 

had already received its name of Vermont, although under 
an alias. 

In respect to the name of Kentucky there is ample room 
for controversy. Allen in his History of Kentucky says it 
was named " from its principal river which is an Indian 
name for ' dark and bloody ground.' " Moulton in his 
History of Ncav York says " Kentuckee signities 'river of 
blood.'" In Hay ward's History of Tennessee, General 
Clark is the authority for the assertion that in the Indian 
language, Kentuke signifies " Eiver of blood." Ramsey in 
his History of Tennessee alludes to the name of Kentucky 
as signifying " the dark and bloody land." In Johnson's 
Cycloptedia the name is given as signifying "the dark and 
bloody ground." In opposition to all this it appears from 
Johnson's " Account of the present state of the Indian tribes 
of Ohio " — Transactions American Antiquarian Society, vol. 
L, page 271 — that Kentucky is a Shawanoese or Shawnoese 
word signifying "at the head of a river," that the Ken- 
tucky river was in former times often used by the Shawanoese 
in their migrations north and south, and hence the whole 
country took its name. This theory of the name is quoted 
approvingly in Gallatin's Synopsis of Indian tribes. — 
Transactions American Antiquarian Society, vol. II. Mr. 
Higginson in his Young Folks' History says, the name first 
applied to the river means " the Long River." It lessens 
the weio;ht of the authorities first cited that some of them 
connect the evil signification of the word with land, and 
some with water. It is also highly improbable that a name 
clothed with associations of terror should be adopted as the 

civic designation of a people. On the whole it may be 

13 



Origin of the Names of the 

safely asserted that the weight of the evidence is in favor of 
the more peaceful origin of the name. 

Tennessee formed a part of the grant of the Caro- 
linas. Its name is derived from its principal river 
though formerly the name Tennessee did not apply 
to the main river, hut to one of the small southerly 
branches thereof. There is authority for saying that 
the name of the river was derived from the village 
of Tanasse, the chief village of the Cherokee tribe, and sit- 
uated on its bank. Hay ward, in his "Natural and Abo- 
riginal History of Tennessee," attempts to trace the origin 
of the name Tanasse as an Indian river name to the ancient 
river Tiinais, and on this discovery, as well as on other 
similar resemblances, he founds the argument that the 
ancient Cherokees migrated from the western part of Asia. 
Mr. Allen claims that the name is derived from an Indian 
name signifying "a curved spoon," and there is authority 
for still another derivation from an Indian word signifying 
" a bend in the river," in allusion to the course of the 
river. I am not aware that in either case the Indian word 
has been given, nor is it believed that any such word exists. 

There is a third group of States, comprising Ohio, Indi- 
ana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, wholly formed from 
the territory of New France, ceded by France to England 
in 1763, relinquished by England to the United States by 
the treaty of 1 783 and finally ceded by Virginia, which had 
acquired it by right of conquest in the Revolution, to the 
United States in 1783. The origin of the names of these 
States will now l)c considered. 



States of the Union. 

Ohio is named after the beautiful river, its southern 
boundary. From Johnson's Account of the Indian Tribes, 
the word Ohio as applied to the river in the Wyandot 
language is 0-lie-zuh, signifying " something great." The 
name was called by the Senecas, dwelling on the shores of 
Lake Erie, the Oheo. Mr. Schoolcraft observes that the 
termination io in Ohio implies admiration. On the old 
French maps the name is sometimes " the Ochio," and 
sometimes " the Oyo." 

Indiana derives its name from one of the old ante-Revo- 
lutionary land companies which had claims in that region. 

The State of Illinois is named from its principal river, the 
Illinois. The river is named from the confederacy of In- 
dian tril)es called the Illinois Confederacy which had its 
seat in the central part of the State. Gallatin gives the 
detinition of the word Illinois, " real men," " superior 
men," from the Delaware word, Leno, Leni, Illin, Illini, as 
it is variously written. The termination ois is that by which 
the French softened the local inflexion when they adopted 
an Indian word. 

Lanman, in his "Red Book of Michigan," derives the 
name of that State from the Indian word Michsaugyeo-an, 
signifying Lake Country. Johnson's Cyclopedia derives 
the name from the Indian words Mitchi, Saugyeo-;in, mean- 
ing Lake Country. I regard this as a questionable deriva- 
tion. There are good reasons for supposing that the State 
derived its name from Lake Michigan, and not from its beino- 
nearly enclosed by lakes. If the word Michigan signities 
Lake Country, why should it have been applied to the Lake 
at all ? In support of the theory that the name Michioan 

15 



Origin of the JVcimes of the 

was descriptive, signifying " great lake," and was first given 
to the lake, I call attention to the fact that on the earliest 
maps the lake l)ears the name, while the peninsula, both 
upper and lower, has no name whatever. 

Besides, the name as applied to the lake, has a simple 
Indian derivation. The Algonquin races, at the head of 
which was the Chippewa tribe, dwelt on the northwestern 
shores of the lake. In the old Algonquin language the 
syllable "gan" meant lake. In the Chippewa language, 
"mitcha" meant great. In this connection let me quote a 
passage from an article in the North American Review, vol. 
XXII., on Indian Language. " This word Meesee or Mee- 
chee (which has been before explained to mean great), for 
it is differently pronounced in different places, is found in 
Michigan, INIissouri, and in many other names." 

Wisconsin was named after its principal river. Until 
quite a recent period the river was called the Ouisconsin, 
which is said to mean "westward flowing." Ouis is evi- 
dently shortened from the French " ouest." Mr. School- 
craft says, that " locality was given in the Algonquin by 
' ing,' meaning at, in, or by, — as Wiscons-ing." The name 
is probably of mixed origin. 

There is a group of States formed entirely out of the 
territory ceded by France to the United States in 1803. 
These are Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and Iowa. 

The name of Louisiana, now confined to a State of the 
LTnion, was originally given to the entire French possessions 
on the west bank of the Mississippi, by La Salle, in 1682, 
in honor of Louis XIV. 

* 16 



States of the Union. 

The State of Arkansas takes its name from its princijjal 
river ; the riv.er from the tribe of Indians formerly living 
near its mouth. Till quite a recent period the river was 
called the Akansas, and the tribe the Akansas tribe. 

Mr. Schoolcraft says that both the names Arkansas and 
Missouri embrace al)original roots, but we hear the sounds 
as modified by French orthoepy and enunciation. The same 
author farther relates that there is a species of acacia found 
in Arkansas, from which the Indians, on the arrival of the 
French, made for themselves bows. It is light yellow, 
solid and flexible. "This is thought to have led to the 
appellation of Arc or Bow Indians." As they belonged to the 
Kansa race, and had lately separated from them, that term 
would naturally be adopted by the French as the generic 
name. 

In the Contributors' Club of the Atlantic Monthly, 
May, 1881, in reference to the name Arkansas, occurs this 
curious passage, "Does not the name come from the arc- 
en-sang of the early French traders, its likeness to Kansas 
being accidental ? Whether the bloody bow was a special 
weapon like the medicine bow that gave its name to a creek, 
mountain range, and railway station, in Wyoming, or the 
bloody bows were a band like the Sans Arcs, cannot now he 
determined," 

The State of Missouri was named from the river of that 
name, and the river itself from the Missouris, a tribe once 
living near its mouth, and afterwards driven into the interior. 
There is another theory in respect to the name of the river 
that it is descriptive. Col. Higginson in his Young Folks' 
c 17 " 



Origin of the Names of the 

History, says, Missouri means "muddy water." The Da- 
cotahs called the Missouri Mimieshoshay, "muddy water," 
a word which might easily become Missouri. In an article 
on Indian Migrations, by Lewis H. Morgan, in the North 
American Keview, vol. CX., it is stated as a matter of 
tradition that the Kansas Indians vvere formerly estalilished 
on the banks of the Mississippi, above the Missouri, and 
that they called the Missouri Ne-sho-ja " the muddy river," 
a name in M'hich the present name can be traced. 

The State of Iowa is named from the river of that name, 
and the river from the loway Indians, who after many mi- 
grations settled on its banks. In the same article in the 
Atlantic Monthly to which I have already alluded, it is in- 
timated that the name loway is contracted from Ah-hee-oo- 
ba, meaning "sleepers," which perhaps explains Avhy the 
Sioux nearly extirpated them. 

The State of Texas formerly Spanish territory, then 
Mexican, and later an independent State is the only State 
acquired by annexation. There is a contliut of opinion as 
to the origin of its name. Johnson's Cyclopoedia, article 
Texas, states that " it is now proved conclusively to be of 
Indian derivation, the generic title of numerous tribes 
known to La Salle on his visit in 1(385." On Scale's map, 
1750, the- centre of the territory is occupied by Indians 
called the Tecas which may be the generic title referred to. 
But Mr. Bryant in his History of the United States, vol. II., 
page 518, note, says " It is supposed that the name Texas 
is from the Spanish Tejas in allusion to the covered houses" 
found by La Salle on his visit in 1()S5. In Morphis' His- 
tory of Texas, the name is given as of doubtful origin. He 

18 



States of the Union, 

states in substance that some refer the name to the capital 
vilhige of the Nassonite tribe, others refer it to the Spanish 
word " tejer " to weave, in reference to placing the grass 
over the cottages, others derive it from "tejas" meaning 
"cobwebs," the account being that the Spaniards encamped 
in an expedition into the country, and one morning the 
commander seeing many spider webs between himself and 
the rising sun exclaimed " Mira las tejas !" and named the 
land Texas. It will be observed that this author in respect 
to one explanation of the name, lends support to Mr. Bry- 
ant's supposition. The cobweb theory may well be dis- 
missed as legendary. 

There are two States of the Union formed of territory 
ceded to the United States by Spain in 1819. By this 
treaty the United States ceded to Spain the part of what 
is now Kansas, lying south of the Arkansas river and 
west of the one hundredth degree of west longitude, also 
the part of what is now Colorado, lying south of 
the same river and west of a line drawn from its 
source due north to the forty-second degree of 
north latitude, also the territory lying south of the 
said parallel of latitude as extended from the end of 
the said north line west to the Pacific Ocean, and the 
United States acquired Florida and all the Spanish terri- 
tory north and east of the above described lines. Thus 
the United States acquired the Spanish title to Oregon 
founded on its discovery by that power about thirty-five 
years before Sir Francis Drake sailed up the Pacific Coast. 

The origin of the name of Florida is a matter of gen- 
eral agreement among historians. The story of Ponce 
de Leon sailing to the West in 1512 in search of the 

19 



Origin of the Names of the 

fountain of youth, seeing land on Pascua Florida or 
"Flowery Easter" and on account of its profusion of 
flowers naming it Florida is familiar to all. 

The name of Oregon was at first applied to the Columljia 
river, then to the territory and lastly to the State. The 
origin of the name is conjectural. The earliest printed 
mention of it is in Carver's travels in 1763. Carver ex- 
plored the sources of the Mississippi river, and states 
that by his residence among the Indians, especially the 
Sioux, he obtained a general knowledge of the situation 
of the river Oregon or "the river of the West that falls 
into the Pacific Ocean at the Straits of Anian." By that 
which he calls the Oregon the sources of which he placed 
not far from the head waters of the Missouri^ he may 
have referred to some one of the sources of the Missouri 
or to one of the two rivers which, rising in the Rocky 
Mountains, formed the principal eastern tributaries of the 
Oregon. Carver was misled as to the locality of the river 
of the West and the supposed sources of it he may have 
confounded with the sources of the Missouri or of one of the 
tributaries in question. But this much the publication of 
his travels accomplished, the establishment of a belief in the 
existence of a great river emptying into the Pacific Ocean. 
He designated by the name Oregon a great river flowing 
into the Pacific and when in after times such a river was 
discovered the name was ready at hand. 

To illustrate the obscurity of our knowledge on this point 
we quote a passage from an article in the North American 
Review, vol. XLVIII., on "Nautical discovery in the 
Northwest." The writer says : 

' ' We wish that Mr. Worcester, or Mr. Bradford or 

20 



States of the Union. 

some scholar in the Western States, distinguished hke 
those gentlemen for geographical science, would explain 
the origin of this word Oregon, w^hich so flir as we know 
is not satisfactorily settled. Mr. Darby in his Gnzetteer 
traces the name to the Spanish Oiegan for the ' sweet 
marjoram' growing on the banks of the river. But to 
this is a serious objection that the name Oregon does not 
seem so far as we remember to have been in use among 
the Spaniards. And as there are and have been no 
settlers of that nation upon the river, how should their 
word for w^ild marjoram come to designate the river? 
HumI)oldt speaks of ' le mot indien Oregan.' Of what 
Indian is it the word? Not of those living on the 
Columbia. Humboldt also talks of the Oregan de Mac- 
Kenzie, but MacKenzie did not introduce the word. W^ 
find it in Carver's travels, 1763, and that is the oldest 
authority for it which has met our eye." 

Perhaps it is vain in the languages of the Indians of the 
Upper Mississippi to search for the source of this name. 
Like other Indian names, it is doubtless descriptive of a 
river of which those Indians had received distant and per- 
haps fabulous accounts. 

There are two States of the Union, California and Nevada, 
formed wholly of territory originally Spanish and acquired 
from Mexico by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The name 
of California appears to have l)ecn taken from a Spanish 
romance. Las Sergus de Esplandian, in which is described 
"the great island of California where a great abundance 
of gold and precious stones is found." This worthless 
romance was published in 1510, and generally read. 
Pro1)ably the name of California engaged the fancy of some 
of the officers of Cortes, and was given, by them to the 



Origin, of the Hames of the 

country discovered by him in 1535. It is strange that the 
name accidentally given should have proved so exactly 
descriptive. The origin of the name is the subject of a very 
attractive paper by Rev. Dr. Hale in vol. IV., Transactions 
of this Society. 

Tlie State of Nevada takes its name from the Sierra Ne- 
vada Mountains, which line its western frontier, the moun- 
tains in their turn being named from the Sierra Nevadas of 
Granada which they are said to resemble in the serrated 
line of their sunnnits. 

There remains a group of States of a composite origin. 
Minnesota, formed in part from the northwest territory, 
ceded by Virginia, and in part from the Louisiana cession ; 
Nebraska, acquired in part by the Frencli cession of 1803, 
and in [)art by the Spanish treaty of 1819, confirmed by 
the Mexican treaty of 1848 ; Kansas, ceded in part by 
France, in part by Spain and in part by Texas ; Colorado, 
ceded in part by Spain, in part by Mexico and in part by 
Texas ; Alabama, ceded to the United States by South Caro- 
lina, l)y Georgia and by Si)ain, and Mississippi, ceded to 
the United States by Georgia except a small southern por- 
tion successively occuj)ied by France, Spain and Great 
Britain and at last taken possession of by the United States. 
The origin of the names of these States claims a brief 
notice. 

Minnesota is named from the Minnesota or St. Peter's ri\ er, 
the principal tributary to the Mississii)pi within its limits. 
The Indian word is Mini-sotah, signyifying "slightly turbid 
water," or as the Minnesota historian more fancifully puts it, 
" sky-tinted water." 

22 



States of the Union. 

Nebraska is named from the Nebraska river. A writer in 
the North American Eeview, vol. LXXXVII., on "the 
Missouri Valley " says the word is Indian and is compound- 
ed of nee, " river," and braska, "shallow." Morgan in his 
article on Indian Migrations, North American Review, vol. 
CIX., says " the name of the Platte river in the Kaw dialect 
is Ne-blas-ka, signifying ' over-spreading flats with shal- 
low water.'" Dr. Hale says the name undoubtedly refers 
to the flatness of the country. 

The State of Kansas is named from its principal river. 
The latter is named from the tribe of Indians, called the 
Konzas, who lived upon its shores. Mr. Schoolcraft uses 
the name Kasas to designate the tribe. De Soto marched 
southerly from the northern limit of his expedition in search 
of a rich province, called Cayas. This points to the original 
name of the tribe, the Kaws. The i)resent name has there- 
fore an Indian root varied by French orthoepy. 

Colorado is named after the great Rio Colorado which 
rises in the Rocky Mountains and falls into the Gulf of 
California. The name signifies in Spanish "ruddy," 
" blood red," in a secondary sense " colored," in allusion 
to the color of its waters. The river is not within the 
limits of the State, and only belongs to it by some of its 
tributaries. 

The State of Mississippi is named after the great river. 
Mr. Atwater, a member of this Society, gives the Indian 
name of the river Meesyseepee, " the great water." That 
the Indian word signifies the " father of waters" is clearly 
erroneous. According to Mr. Gallatin's synopsis of Indian 
tribes, "Missi" never means "father," but "all"— 

23 



Origin of the JVames of the 

"whole." The word " sipi " means in the Chippewa 
" river." Thus the words united mean " the whole river," 
because many streams unite to form it. 

In considerino^ the name of Alabama we 2:0 back to the 
expedition of De Soto in 1541. His last battle was at 
Alibamo on the Yazoo river. This was the famous fortress 
of the brave tribe sometimes called the Alibamons, and 
sometimes the Alal)amas. Le Clerc who resided in the 
Creek nation twenty years and wrote a history pulilished in 
Paris in 1802, says that the Alabamos came to the Yazoo 
from the north part of Mexico, and that after the battle with 
De Soto they removed to the river which now bears their 
name, that they are the same people as the Alibamos who 
fought De Soto. Pickett in his History of Alabama states 
that "from these people, the river, and state took their 
names." Allen's History of Kentucky says Alabama is 
an Indian name signifying "here we rest."- Mr. School- 
craft says cautiously that the name has l)een interpreted 
"here we rest." We have not been al)le to discover 
anything very restful in the history of the Alabamos, 
which is one of migrations. Mr. Meeks, a good author- 
ity in that State, thinks that the word Alaba is only the 
name Hillaba the Ullibahallee of De Soto, a theory at 
variance with that of Le Clerc and referrins: the origin 
of the name to a different tribe. 

In Mr. Pinkerton's Geography in 1804 occurs this 
striking passage: "The great country of Louisiana, now 
ceded to the United States, will doubtless at no very 
distant period, be divided into several distinct States, and 
in giving names to these the Americans will have an 

24 



States of the Union. 

opportunity of manifesting their veneration for, and their 
gratitude to, some of the illustrious men who first dis- 
covered the countries of the new w^orld, or have con- 
tributed to its freedom and happiness." It is not pleasant 
to reflect that so far this opportunity has been lost and 
this hope disappointed. There is no State of the Union 
which bears the name of Cabot, or of Coronado, or of 
De Soto, or of La Salle. And there is Father Marquette 
whose form rises before us, dazzling and immortal as we 
open the pages of our early histor}-. We recall the poetic 
rendering of his last words, which sum up his glorious life, 
as he expires in a lonely hovel on the shores of Lake 
Michigan : 

'• As God shall will, what matters where 
A true man's cross shall stand 
So heaven be o'er it, here as there 
In pleasant Norman land. 

'IJrbs Sion mj^stica' I see 

Its mansions passing fair 
Condita coelo, let me be 

Dear Lord a dweller there." 

Was there no State to feel itself honored, to be called 
after his name ? But the wrong may yet be righted. In the 
naming of the new States which yet remain to be formed 
from our Western domain, the last opportunity will be 
given to do justice to these great discoverers, and it would 
be a graceful and appropriate office of this Society, as cases 
arise, to exert its influence by correspondence with the 
local authorities, and by memorial to Congress in favor of 
rendering to them even at this late day this exalted tribute. 



25 



\ 



\ 



